1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for encoding or decoding audio signals.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, in the process for downmixing a plurality of objects into a mono or stereo signal, parameters are extracted from the object signals, respectively. These parameters are usable for a decoder. And, panning and gain of each of the objects is controllable by a selection made by a user.
However, in order to control each object signal, each source contained in a downmix should be appropriately positioned or panned.
Moreover, in order to provide downlink compatibility according to a channel-oriented decoding scheme, an object parameter should be converted to a multi-channel parameter for upmixing.